| BOOK REVIEW |

Title: Home or Away
Author: Kathleen West
Format: 🎧 (Originally received ARC from @berkleypub)
Rating: ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

What a great read for this hockey super-fan! It certainly wasn't a mystery or thriller, but instead a family-oriented contemporary drama, so know that going in. Some of the characters weren't always likeable, but West made sure that I understood their reasoning and intentions, even if I didn't like them.


Gus' narrative added some needed levity and balanced the story of women returning to the sport with a young boy's first introduction. The balance of new, youthful dreams and old, unrealized dreams was perfect.


The relationships were also key: parent-child, spouses, and friends, all brilliantly written in this novel. I truly enjoyed it.

Key Points:
• Unlikeable main characters
• Redefining a traditionally male sport with strong women
• Lots of hockey, but through a relationship lens
• Flashbacks

I don’t know much about hockey but this book definitely held my interest.
Best friends, Leigh and Susy were on the road to Olympic hockey glory together, But only one of them would bring home a medal.
Fast forward twenty years later Leigh is married, and she is the mother of young Gus, and they have moved back to Minnesota, for the sake of her son, who wants his own chance at hockey glory. This move has brought back bitter memories for Leigh, memories she has kept even from her husband. Gus is struggling to he keep up with his teammates.
Susy who is now the hockey coach, tries to reach out to Leigh, but Leigh has held a grudge towards Susy’s success, she also has knowledge of Leigh's old secret, and Susy has has developed a new friendship with Leigh’s husband, Charlie. Things begins to go from bad to worse for Leigh, as the reasons for her hockey failures all those years ago threaten to surface, which could mean an end to her marriage. But even worse, there is an increasing amount of pressure from Susy and others to admit the truth and to finally come forward with her story…

Love this cover! I mean, seriously, love it! I went in blind to this one based on the cover. I have a friend that loves hockey and is always saying I need to read more hockey themed books! This just felt like a win/win! Great book! Read it!

I am not a Hockey Person at all but I do Love Sports and knew there would be some way to relate. While hockey was the catalyst for the story it was not the story. It was actually quite different than I thought it would be but I definitely enjoyed it.

I enjoy the novels West writes, they are raw, investigate women with real, life-sized flaws and usually make me laugh along the way. This novel was no different with a rollercoaster of emotions from beginning to end. Her novels seem to typically involve "high school times" as well as "now that I am an adult times" which is a unique review of life- looking back at what one did or did not accomplish.

I like the uniqueness of the hockey theme and women- so under represented within novels.

Well done I will definitely read another one!

West has the intrinsic ability to captivate her readers with complex characters and real stories. HOME OR AWAY is another winner for me.

Ten years ago, when my son was a senior in high school, I wrote a novel loosely based on his first summer playing travel baseball. Last year, when he was antsy waiting to hear whether he’d passed the bar, I suggested he finally read it. I thought it would be an amusing diversion, a memory of fun and funny times. Instead, he paced the living room floor in between chapters, anxious and regretful. “Why,” he asked me, “did you parents always have to ruin everything!”

This cry from my son’s nine-year-old self echoed through my head as I read Kathleen West’s latest, Home or Away. Like her earlier novels, Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes and Are We There Yet (reviewed here), Home or Away takes place in Liston Heights, Minnesota, a fictional suburb filled with overachieving kids and their helicopter parents. Unlike these novels, Home or Away is missing that note of satire that made the characters feel slightly exaggerated. Parents who haven’t experienced youth sports might feel that West’s portrayal of youth hockey is embellished, but those of us who’ve been there know it’s a hundred percent true.

Click on the link below to read the rest of the review:

I have enjoyed Kathleen West's previous books and this one was just as good. West does an amazing job writing from a teen/parent of a teen point of view. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. Looking forward to recommending this book.

4⭐️ for Home or Away by @kathleenwestwrites

TW: sexual assault

First, I want to thank @letstalkbookspromo, @letstalkbooksreaderteam, @kathleenwestwrites, & @berkleypub for the digital copy of Home or Away!

Blurb: Two friends, one Olympic dream, and the choice that stood in the way. Once Leigh and Susy were close friends and teammates bound for Olympic hockey gold, but when Leigh’s sure-fire plan to make the final roster backfired, she left everything behind to start over, including the one person who knew her secret. Two decades later, Leigh’s a successful investment banker, happily married, and a mom, so when a career opportunity lands the family back in Minnesota, Leigh takes the shot for her kid. Back in the ultra-competitive world she left behind, the move puts her in Susy’s orbit, a daily reminder of how Leigh watched from the sidelines as her former teammate went on to Olympic glory. Despite the coldness between them, Susy can’t help but hope that Leigh might lace up her skates and join her in the coaches’ box—after all Leigh knows better than anyone how hard it is to be a woman in this world. But Leigh believes keeping Susy at arms’ length is the only way to hide her history with her former coach Jeff Carlson. When he hints of new favors in exchange for her son’s ice time.

Review: I have watched & enjoyed hockey since I was in 8th grade. While I have never played hockey, since my (now) husband was a junior in college, he has worked in different leagues in hockey, from the professional leagues to NCAA D1 hockey. Home or Away dealt with some of the darker sides of hockey, but dealt with them with respect & integrity. Leigh has to come to terms with things & has to figure out her place now. With a dual timeline, early 2000’s to 2022-2023, & multiple POVs, this one kept me wanting to read. West was able to get to the heart of both competitive hockey & youth hockey. I would definitely recommend this one!

Author Kathleen West is a lifelong Minnesotan with more than twenty years' experience as a schoolteacher,. She continues teaching English while focusing her writing on motherhood, ambition, competitive parenting, and work-life balance.

West describes Minneapolis as "the perfect place to write a hockey book. . . . Minnesota is the state of hockey." It is an integral part of the school and youth culture, and West herself is a hockey mom. Her children fell in love with the sport and she has spent a decade in hockey rinks. Even so, to pen Home or Away she had to conduct significant research to educate herself about coaching and playing hockey. In addition to the fact that "Minnesota and hocky go together," she chose to focus the story around it because children begin playing at a very young age in order to excel at it. And hockey requires players to master several different skillsets, including skating and stick handling, in addition to game strategy. West found the intensity inherent in the sport important for her characters' traits, life choices, and reactions to what they experience.

The story is told from four characters' perspectives. At the center of the tale is Leigh, who grew up in Minneapolis playing competitive hockey and, along with her good friend and teammate, Suzy, goes to Lake Placid to train and, hopefully, secure a place on the 2002 Olympic team. For Leigh, competing in the Olympics will be the culmination of years of preparation, and she is singularly focused on her goal. By the time she leaves for the summer, she is in a relationship with Charlie. When she arrives in Lake Placid, she realizes that competition for the team is even more intense than she imagined it would be, but she has attracted the attention of an assistant coach, Jeff Carlson. She believes him when he assures her that, although he does not have final decision-making power, he can definitely influence the selection of Olympic team members. Leigh is young, ambitious, and determined to achieve her goal at any cost. Still, her compromise is not enough and she listens in stunned disbelief as the team members are announced but her name is not called. She returns home to Minnesota dejected and bitter, and gives up hockey. She persuades Charlie to marry her shortly thereafter and launches her career in investment banking.

Worse, Leigh carries a terrible secret that, if revealed, could destroy the life she builds with Charlie in Florida where he works as the assistant manager of a bookstore and toils sporadically on his first novel which, unbeknownst to Leigh uncomfortably parallels her experience. In their marriage, Leigh is the primary breadwinner, and Charlie bears prime responsibility for their household and rearing their nine-year-old son, Gus. Like his mother and Leigh's brother, who coaches hockey in Minnesota, Gus loves the sport and is excited to move to a place with a more robust youth program.

West also relates the story from Gus's perspective as he maintains a "Hockey Bible" in which he chronicles his practice times, milestones, and advice received from his coaches. His consternation about competition, fitting in, and his mother's role in his placement on the team in a division for which he is not sure he is qualified, is endearing and, at times, heartbreaking. West credibly depicts his emotional struggles and voice. He enjoys hockey and knows that his mother, more than anyone, wants him to excel. But is he playing the sport because he is passionately devoted to it and fueled by the same kind of ambition his mother had? Or is he just trying to please his parents by living up to their expectations?

The story is also related from the vantage points of Charlie and Susy. Charlie is affable, devoted to his family, and a bit overwhelmed as he attempts to assimilate into the the world of hockey parents. He wants only the best for Charlie, and looks to Leigh, her brother and his fellow coaches, and the other parents for guidance since he did not play hockey. His passivity and gentle nature both attract and repel Leigh, who finds herself at a crossroads soon after relocating. She is reunited with Susy, who knows the truth about what happened in Lake Placid. She could see that Leigh's focus was not where it should be and she was not working hard enough. Suzy has remained active in the sport as a coach and mother of a talented daughter who is competing. Susy's growing friendship with Charlie alarms Leigh, who fears that she will reveal to Charlie what she knows about Leigh's past. Divorced, Susy finds herself increasingly drawn to Charlie ("the nicest guy in the universe" who looks "like a literal movie star") and frustrated by Leigh's actions and the way Susy believes she takes Charlie for granted.

Leigh learns that Jeff has been accused of abusing young, vulnerable female athletes that he coached after that lifechanging summer in Lake Placid, and she is asked to provide information about her experiences. Jeff's fundamental character traits remain the same as two decades earlier. He is still overbearing and manipulative, and convinces Leigh that he holds the power to influence her son's success as a competitive player. The secret she has kept for so many years weighs heavily on her, as does her guilt, as she debates whether to accede to Jeff's demands or risk everything and everyone that she loves by telling the truth.

The most compelling and emotionally resonant aspect of Home or Away is West's exploration of the power dynamics between male coaches and female athletes. West places Leigh and Susy in the midst of the emergence of women's hockey in the mid to late 1990's, culminating in Susy earning a place on the U.S. Olympic team when Leigh did not. Seeing Susy again -- an Olympic medalist -- churns up feelings that Leigh has refused to confront for twenty years. Coupled with pressure from both Jeff and other women who want her to speak her truth in order to ensure that Jeff is held accountable for his behavior, Leigh must finally reconcile her past at the risk of the life she has built. She is not just wracked with guilt and afraid of the fallout from having the truth exposed. She is also proud and determined not to let her parents and brother down again. After all, her father created a place in her parents' home where her Olympic medal was going to be displayed and that place has remained empty for twenty years. It represents an empty space deep within Leigh where she has been unable to forgive herself. As West notes, "She refuses to let people in or admit weakness" and her stoicism blinds her to the truth about her behavior in Lake Placid. But at her core, Leigh wants to do the right thing, which forces her to grapple with a stark reality: she has the unique power to aid the young women who have lodged complaints about Jeff's abuse of power. West deftly examines the nuances of the #MeToo storyline from the viewpoints of Leigh and Susy, as well as the voice of Leigh's new friend, Nicole, a savvy and assertive attorney. She also compassionately depicts Charlie's emotional turmoil as pieces of the puzzling truth about his wife and her decisions begin falling into place. Charlie and Leigh eventually grapple with whether their marriage can withstand betrayals and lies through understanding, forgiveness, and abiding love and respect.

Home or Away is at once a charming look at family life in America's heartland and a searing study of the pressures budding athletes feel to succeed, with internal and external stressors weighing upon them. Between chapters, West inserts emails from the officious team manager to the "Listen Heights Hockey Fam" which are darkly hilarious and frighteningly realistic, demonstrating the extent to which some parents become obsessed with their children's athletic pursuits. And although West successfully centers the tale around hockey, she could have fleshed out her universal themes within the context of any competitive sport.

West's characters are multi-layered and believable, and Leigh's conundrum is both timely and, sadly, timeless. Her dilemmas are relatable, and West skillfully makes every character both flawed and sympathetic so that readers will find themselves taking Leigh, Charlie, Susy and, in particular, little Gus into their hearts and hoping that they can successfully navigate the crisis into which they are thrust.

Home or Away is entertaining, engrossing, and, best of all, thought-provoking.

Leigh was once an Olympic hopeful, ready to go all the way with her hockey team and win the gold medal. Unfortunately, Leigh's dreams didn't materialize, and she abandoned those dreams for suburban life. Years later, her son also enjoys hockey, so she moves back to her hometown to give him the same opportunity in the hockey world that she had. This brings her back into contact with longtime teammate Susy, now a hockey coach. Susy is willing to put the past behind them and have Leigh come on board to coach as well, but Leigh seeks to hide the secrets of the past that center around their old coach. When those secrets begin to unravel at the seams, Leigh quickly realizes that it might be her old rival, and not her old coach, who truly has her back.

A young adult loses her dream. Her child takes up the mantle. The past begins to repeat. The past also brings out skeletons in the closet. This is Leigh's life, and while I personally couldn't identify with her actions, as a parent and as an athlete, I was still interested in her story and the relationship between herself and Susy. Leigh makes a number of questionable decisions that are not laudable, some of them for the sport, and some of them more personal. Separately, she is also taken advantage of, and the imbalance between men's and women's sports comes to the fore here.

This story carries a fair bit of hockey lingo, and a strong focus on the competitive sport, and I appreciated the attention to detail concerning what it takes to train as an Olympic hopeful, and what that entails for parents. The primary strength of the story is in its character relationships, both positive and negative, and the secrets that build and unravel between Leigh, Susy, and their old coach are well-layered throughout the unfolding drama. Home or Away is the story of a hockey mom's dreams built up, dashed, revived by her child, and secrets dredged up from the past threatening all she dared to build and hope for. Recommended for readers who are interested in competitive endeavors, competitive rivalry, Olympic stories, old secrets that affect the present, and the struggles of women to be taken seriously in specific male-dominated sports.

The following review was posted on my blog (www.blogginboutbooks.com) on 05.06.22:

Twenty years ago, 42-year-old Leigh Mackenzie wanted nothing more than to play hockey in the Olympics. She trained with relentless focus, pushed herself to the brink of collapse, and visualized herself standing proud on the podium. As an added guarantee, she accepted the advances of her coach, who promised her a spot on the team in exchange for sexual favors. When Jeff Carlson failed to deliver, Leigh's dreams were crushed. Shamed and shattered, she buried their secret affair and left the sport behind, using her athletic drive to become a successful investment banker in Florida.

When a job opportunity leads Leigh back to her hockey-obsessed hometown, she returns to Minnesota with great reluctance. As much as she doesn't want to face her past, she can't deny that Liston Heights is the best place for her son—a 9-year-old hockey prodigy—to excel. Getting Gus on the right team with the right coach is essential, but it will mean plunging their little family into the cutthroat world of competitive sports on a level her husband and child have never experienced before. Not only is Jeff Carlson in the center of that universe, but so is Susy Walker, Leigh's former teammate and the only person who knows what really happened between her and Jeff two decades ago.

Leigh is dismayed to discover that despite Gus' natural skill, he's far behind the other kids in his training. When Jeff offers to help, Leigh finds herself in a delicate position once again. How far is she willing to go to get Gus where he needs to be? With rumors of a new sexual harrasment suit against Jeff in the air, she has to decide whether to keep quiet for her son's sake or reveal the explosive secret even her husband, Charlie, doesn't know in order to take an influential predator out of the game for good.

Before I start dishing about Home Or Away, Kathleen West's newest novel, I should say right up front that I don't have a competitive bone in my body. I've never been into sports and even with games I do enjoy (like, say, Scrabble), I care not at all whether I win or lose. In my (not so) humble opinion, youth sports should be a safe, supportive environment where children can learn and have fun, not a place for hyper parents to relive their own glory days or pad their egos by pressuring their kids to win, then losing their minds when the players don't triumph or perform as well as expected. Because of these pre-existing feelings, I admit I went into Home Or Away with some heavy biases that affected my reaction to and enjoyment of the story. Incidentally, I have to say that the novel did nothing to change these biases. In fact, it just reinforced them...

At any rate, you won't be suprised to learn that I had a hard time relating to the characters in this book. I simply don't understand people whose lives revolve completely around their children's sporting events. It's even tougher for me to conceive of parents who do the kinds of things Leigh, Charlie, and their friends do in the name of hockey. To me, it just seems silly to care as much as they do about the athletic career of a NINE YEAR OLD. So, while Charlie is much more likable than Leigh, I still really didn't care for either of them (if you want a more spirited and spoiler-y explanation of why, you can read my lengthy Goodreads review here). The only person in the story who mattered to me was young Gus.

All that being said, West does do a good job of bringing the whole crazy competitive hockey culture thing to life. I could really FEEL the characters' emotions, from the highs of winning to the lows of defeat. The tension in the novel, from both the high-strung parents and the too-pressured kids, is palpable. That constant conflict kept me burning through the pages. I definitely wanted to know how the story was going to play out. So, while I can't say I loved this novel (Did I even like it? I'm not sure.), it did keep me reading. In addition, the book's plot and themes provide plenty of food for thought and discussion. If you're on the hunt for a read that will provoke a lively debate at your next book club meeting, you just found it...

(Readalikes: Reminds me of You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott)

Grade: B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated: R for language, sexual content/sexual innuendo, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love: I received an e-ARC of Home Or Away from the generous folks at Penguin Random House via those at NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Home or Away by Kathleen West was a very enjoyable read.

This is a novel about friendship, overcoming the past and how far someone might go to make their kid’s dreams happen.

Leigh was a hockey standout, at least until she gave it all up when she didn’t make the Olympic team. Now, she’s a hockey mom. And to give her son, Gus, the best hockey experience possible, she moves her family from sunny Florida to her hometown in Minnesota. While Gus was a star in Florida, Leigh knows he’ll have a long way to go to be competitive in Minnesota. Sometimes in the hockey world, it’s all about who you know. As it turns out, Leigh’s former teammate, Susie her former coach, Jeff are involved in the decision-making process. Will Leigh use her old connections to give her son a leg up? Or will she leave the past in the past?

Overall, I thought this was a great read. I appreciated the alternating viewpoints and timelines between past and present. While I liked Leigh, I wish she would have come to her senses sooner about her past. It was also interesting to read how crazy and intense youth hockey (and the parents) can get. All in all, my favorite part about this story was the theme of friendship and forgiveness.

This book has stuck with me. Leigh is a former Nat'l level hockey team. After not making the Women's Olympic team she left hockey all together. She got married, became an investment banker, moved to Florida. But hockey must be in the blood because her son, Gus, is all about hockey and shows some raw talent.

Her family moved back to MN for a new job and to give Gus a shot at more competitive hockey. This puts Leigh back in touch with people. memories, and a big secret.

I loved the multiple points of view and learning about how competitive youth hockey can be. And this felt really real. The people are flawed and didn't always make the best decisions. I had to keep to reading to see what happened next and am so glad I did!

Thanks to the publisher and NtGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

This was my second Kathleen West book and she is the master of writing about the pre-teen age group, from both the parent POV and the kid. This book centers on Leigh, a former hockey star that was cut from the Women's US Hockey team right before the 2002 Olympics. Once she was cut, she completely gave up hockey, got married, graduated college, started a new career and moved from Minnesota to Florida. In the current day, Leigh and her family decide to move back to Minnesota to give her son, Gus, a chance to be a hockey star as well.

Told from multiple POVs, this story uncovers what happened at the 02 Olympic tryouts for Leigh to give up hockey forever and it also focuses on Leigh's relationship with her one-time best friend Susy. One POV the author included was of 10 year old Gus and I loved the inclusion of his journal in the story.

Interestingly, the backstory isn't a huge part of the book, although it plays a pivotal role. I liked how the author explored the stress and angst of getting your kid on a special sports team while also uncovering what had happened in the past. I did find the story a little slow in the beginning, despite enjoying what I was reading but then by the end I was sad the story was over. I feel like I am a part of the community now and am debating seeing if my son wants to start playing hockey (we won't put him through that stress though! Ha).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

TITLE: HOME OR AWAY
AUTHOR: Kathleen West
PUB DATE: 03.29.2022 Pre Order Now

Top reasons to read Home or Away
✔️High-stakes hockey
✔️Bitter Betrayal
✔️Complex Characters
✔️Fantastic Friendship Fiction

I really enjoy Kathleen West’s writing for her well drawn, complex, and relatable characters that immersed the reader into the story. I tore through this absolutely exciting novel, and finding myself devouring this story whenever I can.

In this third novel, Home or Away, West deftly writes a story told in multiple POV, that is set in 2022 about Leigh’s current move from Florida back to Minnesota, where twenty years ago, she played competitive hockey along with her best friend Suzy. The brilliant part is the way the backstory is slowly introduced to find out what happened to her Olympic hockey dreams, and why she abandoned hockey. As the layer of the story unfolds, the more high stakes the story becomes. I really enjoyed the themes, the characters, and this perfectly paced story.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁 (Swipe> to see full synopsis)
- Leigh broke ties with her best friend Susy, her Minnesota hometown, and her teammates after being cut from the Women’s USA hockey team, losing her dream of competing in the 2002 Olympic Games.
- Twenty years later, she is happily married, a successful investment banker, and accepts a new job moving her family back to Minnesota so her son can play elite hockey.
- Back in Minnesota, Leigh must face the friends she ghosted, including Susy, now a two-time silver medalist, and Jeff, her former coach, currently under investigation for misconduct.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
* This story is told in dual timelines, from multiple POVs, with Leigh being the central character.
*Hockey is center stage, but this book is more about the complex moral dilemmas faced by the characters in the book.
*Great job describing the politically competitive world of youth sports and the lengths parents will go to for their children (or their egos)

I am a huge hockey fan, and while I am not a Hockey Mom, I was impressed with how accurate West was in describing the passion for the game, gameplay, and the crowd’s emotions during a youth hockey game.

I have met many women like Leigh in the workplace, and their singular, driven focus makes them successful in their careers. Some will find Leigh challenging to like as a person, but I hope most will appreciate that the moral and ethical decisions she faces are not always black and white.

For anyone that has ever refreshed a tryout page a million times to see if your number or your kid’s number is on the team roster, this book is for you.
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This was an addictive page turner that I read in one day. This is a story about hockey but at its heart it’s so much more.
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Suzy and Leigh were the best of friends, teammates and roommates but when Susy makes the Olympics team and Leigh gets cut their friendship ends and Leigh leaves the entire world of hockey behind her, including her secrets.
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Fast forward twenty years and Leigh must return to her hometown to offer her 9 year old a chance in the Hockey world. Youth hockey is light years different now and she is unprepared.
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This is not simply Youth hockey (or insert any sports, dance, activity) This is a world where parents know all of their kids competition, know rankings of other teams and spend their spare time scouting out the nine year old competition.
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I love how this story was told in multiple pov and dual timelines. I thought it was done exceptionally well.
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub for an advanced copy.

As a lover of West's first novel, I came into this reading experience with high hopes for the level of wit, banter, and satirical insight into the human experience that West delivered earlier. This was not found. There was nary a witty moment, and hardly a redeeming character! Set primarily on the ice and flashing back and forth to past and present, I found myself unable to connect with the motivations of characters, and struggled to believe that some of the tensions that existed between characters would not have lessened after 20 years. Overall, a disappointment (not so much in the writing, but in the execution/storytelling).

In a follow up to her hit novel “Are we There Yet”, Kathleen West knocks this one out of the park yet again.

In her early 20s Leigh Mackenzie was one of the best women’s hockey players and has high hopes of making the Olympic team. However, when her best friend and confidant Suzy makes it and she doesn’t she hangs up the skates forever. Fast forward twenty plus years later and Leigh finds herself back where she never thought she would again, home.

The book is told in dual timelines, past and present of Leigh’s son and is hopeful of making a youth hockey team and the background of Leigh and her hockey coach Jeff, who ironically fits in to her past.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and it really gave the insight on how crazed parents can get with the competitiveness with youth sports